France’s broadcast regulator the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) has opened a public consultation on the transfer in urban areas of frequencies in the 700MHz to services other than broadcast and the evolution of the terrestrial broadcaster landscape in such areas.

The move follows the announcement on December 10 2014 by France’s Prime Minister of the government’s decision to transfer, to the mobile communications sector in particular, frequencies in the 700MHz band.
The CSA notes that such a move, which covers nearly 30 per cent of the radio spectrum currently used by digital terrestrial television (DTT), matches in scale the move to all-digital television broadcasting in recent years.

Accordingly, the consultation aims to elicit contributions from all players involved in such developments in France, in particular, the transition of licensed DTT services to all- MPEG-4 broadcasting, the transfer of the 700MHz band for other services than broadcasting, and changes to the terrestrial television broadcast landscape in the short and medium term.
Contributions to the consultation have to be submitted by February 23rd.

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